Discovering why yoga is good for us at a cellular level

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The Loh Down on Science is the fun way to get your daily dose of science in less than two minutes. The program explains the world of science with a dash of humor. Hosted by writer/performer and Caltech alumna Sandra Tsing Loh, it's a program for those who love science as well as for those who avoid it!

Meet researchers at the University of Oslo, in Norway. They've determined that yoga actually changes gene expression in immune cells. Which is a fancy way of saying yoga turns some genes on and some off. We’ve known for a while that yoga is good for immunity; now we have a better idea of how that works.

Over four days, the researchers had ten men either do yoga or take nature walks while listening to music. The men's blood was drawn for genetic analysis before and after each activity.

And? In all, yoga affected 111 genes, which is a pretty big chunk, and the changes happened fast—within two hours. One of the genes? Boosts natural killer cells. These are part of the immune system’s first defense against bacteria and viruses.

By comparison, the subjects who walked in nature had only 38 gene changes.